WEST BANK/ISRAEL/GAZA: 9 killed in Israeil attack on Gaza Strip

Israel kills nine Palestinians in military operations in Gaza Strip and threatens major ground sweep of Hamas-run territory to stem cross-border rocket fire. Israel killed nine Palestinians in military operations in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday (September 26) and threatened a major ground sweep of the Hamas-run territory to stem cross-border rocket fire. Five members of the Army of Islam militant group died in an Israeli air strike on their car in Gaza City. In a separate incident, Palestinian witnesses said Israeli shelling killed a gunman and three bystanders in the northern town of Beit Hanoun. The fighting -- among the bloodiest since Hamas Islamists seized control of Gaza in June -- came hours after militants said they launched more than 12 rockets at the southern Israeli town of Sderot. Israel sent troops backed by dozens of tanks and armoured bulldozers into Beit Hanoun, a favoured rocket-launching ground, sparking clashes with Hamas and other local gunmen. Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said there could soon be a broader sweep in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has come under pressure from Sderot residents and right-wing politicians to order a large-scale ground operation in the Gaza Strip. Several Israeli cabinet ministers have cautioned that such a campaign could lead to heavy casualties among Israeli forces and Palestinians in the densely populated coastal territory where 1.5 million people live. An Israeli military push into the Gaza Strip in the coming weeks could also complicate plans for a U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace conference expected to take place in November in the Washington area. In Beit Hanoun, witnesses said Israeli shells struck the home of a Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) gunman, killing him and three other occupants, all non-combatants. One of the dead was a boy, medical officials said. The incident came shortly after the PRC gunman fired at Israeli troops, witnesses said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was checking the report. Asked about the air strike in Gaza City, the military spokeswoman said it targeted an Army of Islam cell that was transporting rockets to launch areas. Palestinian security sources confirmed that the dead were from Army of Islam, a shadowy faction which, along with Hamas and another armed group, abducted an Israeli soldier in a June 2005 border raid. Last week, Israel declared Gaza an "enemy entity" in response to frequent rocket fire -- which rarely causes deaths but has a powerful impact on life along the border -- and said it would reduce fuel and power supplies to the territory. Former Palestinien prime minister and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called on arab nations to move to stop the new Israeli escalation and planned incursion against Gaza. "We are again in front of a new wave of Israeli aggression, demands from our people to stand and be united together. And also requires from our nation to bare the responsibility and here I particular mention Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Syria, Qatar to move quickly and swiftly for the sake of stopping the Israeli aggression against our Palestinian people," Haniyeh told reporters at a function in Gaza city. It has yet to take such actions, which U.N. officials and human rights groups have said would violate international law pertaining to occupied territories. Israel pulled troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005 after 38 years of occupation. Palestinians say the territory is still effectively under occupation because Israel controls its borders, waters and airspace. Israel disputes this.

ITN Source | September 27, 2007

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